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You you Good evening. Good evening. Welcome the first works baptist church going to please stand with me turn the song number 164 praise him praise him 164 praise him 164 praise him praise him on the first praise him praise him Jesus our blessed Redeemer sing Oh There's wonderful love proclaim Hail him hail him Highest our glory Like a shepherd Carries them all day long Him Oh Jesus Bob Greatness Joyful song laughs praise him Santa's ring Prophet Oh Let's pray well, thank you for this wonderful and beautiful day father I just pray for the preacher and the message come forth. I pray for the singing leading up to that We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Go ahead and be seated turn into song number 260. He is able to deliver thee Song number 260 he is able to deliver thee Song number 260 on the first Tis the grandest thing that the ages wrong tis the grandest thing for a mortal tongue this the grandest thing World there song our God is able to deliver thee He is able to deliver thee He is able to deliver thee Though my sin Go to him for rest our God is able to deliver thee This the grandest thing in the earth or me this the grandest thing For a mortal strain this the grandest thing tell the world again our God is able to deliver me he is Able to deliver me he is able to deliver me For I said, oh, let's go to him for rest our God is able to deliver thee This the grandest thing let the tidings roll to the guilty heart The sinful soul look to God in faith He will make the whole our God is able to deliver thee He is able to deliver thee He is Able to deliver thee Though my sin Paul press go to him for rest our God is able to deliver thee Great singing Alright great singing. Thank you for being here this evening Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song which will be 188 the love of God song number 188 if you want to get that ready in your song books Just a few announcements our Sunday morning service is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock You see the so many times and teams and the list of expecting mothers if you can keep them in prayer And then the important reminders there at the bottom Thank you for all of those who participated and miss Tanya leaves baby shower That was today after the service and so I heard it was great And then the Monday Sony is of course tomorrow at 1130 here at the church building. You can see brother Elise's for more Brother Elise's Hernandez for more details and then the end of school picnic is on Tuesday May 30th That'll be at eucalyptus park at 1230 and you could either talk to my wife or brother Elise's if you need more details about That hope to see you there and then lastly on Saturday, June 3rd 3rd is the ladies prayer breakfast, mr Noggin's Alice is the one who heads that up and so you can talk to her for more information about that You see the regular reminders there at the bottom Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service Let's take some so many numbers from this past week's salvation from Monday to Thursday any salvation from Monday to Thursday How about Friday and Saturday? Salvations for Friday and Saturday one and then this afternoon salvations for this afternoon one one for brother hikes team Two for brother Marcus's team two for brother Glenn's team anybody else going once twice thrice. Okay, keep up the great work Let's go to sing our next song 188 the love of God Song number 188 the love of God song number 188 the love of God on the first verse the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen Can ever tell it goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell the guilty pair bow down with care God gave his son to him He reconciled Imparted from his sin whole love of God How rich and pure How measure less and strong It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song when hoary time shall pass away and earthly thrones and kingdoms long when man who refused to pray on rocks and hills and mountains calm God's love so sure shall still endure all measure less and strong redeeming grace to Adam's race the saints and angels song whole love of God How rich and pure How measure less and strong It shall forevermore endure saints and angels song the last verse nice and strong Could we with big the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made where every star honored the quill and every man ascribed by trade of God above would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the hopeful stretch from sky to sky God of God How rich and pure How measure less and strong It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano piano Good evening, tonight we're in 2 Peter chapter 1 and the Bible reads Simon Peter a sermon of an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our savior Jesus Christ grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust and beside this giving all diligence add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity for if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling the election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of God of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though ye know them and be established in the present truth yea I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance for we have not followed kindly devised fables when we may known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of his majesty for he received from God the father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased and this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount we have also a more sure word of prophecy where until you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost let's pray dear Lord God thank you for the King James Bible Lord and your word Lord and thank you for this church and we thank you for pastor we pray that you bless him right now and fill him with the spirit as he preaches your word Lord and that us in the congregation can be attentive to the preaching of your word and be edified by it Lord we pray this in Jesus name Amen Amen Okay we're in 2 Peter chapter number 1 and look down at your Bibles at verse number 8 it says for if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins and the time of my sermon this evening is avoiding sterile knowledge avoiding sterile knowledge and of course I'm referring to verse number 8 that states they make you referring to what we're going to look at tonight that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ you see all Christians obviously we have access to the truth we have the word of God we have access to preaching we have access to biblical content and the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the Bible even tells us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but the reality is this is that an active faith requires our knowledge in order for our knowledge to be fruitful it requires an active faith it's about what we know but we need to put what we know into practice as well and according to the Bible if you don't put into practice that what you're learning that what you're reading that what you're hearing if you're not a doer of the word and simply only a hearer according to the Bible you're going to be barren you're going to be sterile you're going to be an unfruitful Christian and in fact you're going to end up deceiving yourself because you think to yourself well I have all this knowledge of the Bible therefore I'm a good Christian I have all this knowledge of doctrine and systematic theology and I can defend the faith and I know what the Bible says about certain things but you know God is interested in you actually putting into practice that what you've learned as well he wants you to live a godly life he wants you to live a Christian life and that comes as you put into practice the knowledge that you have obtained he doesn't want you to be a barren Christian an unfruitful sterile Christian now look at verse number 3 it says here in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 3 according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue so according to the Bible the Bible tells us that the word of God has everything that we need that pertains to life and godliness that's why we say that the word of God is our final authority for all faith and practice right anything that we do our world view anything the way we live the way we work the way we have our families the way we behave our conduct it's all based upon the Bible right and the Bible says there that it's through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue so we have no excuse okay obviously people in times past even in the New Testament for example you know they didn't necessarily have the complete canonized word of God the revelation of God's word was not yet complete so essentially they still saw through a glass darkly and you go back even further than that the people of the Old Testament really saw through a glass darkly they only had the first five books of the Bible to work with and other instances maybe the Psalms and then later on the major and minor prophets but we today in 2023 we have the entire Bible right and therefore we don't necessarily have an excuse as to why we don't know certain things why we're not acting out our faith the Bible says here we have everything that pertains to life and godliness it says in verse number four whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust so one thing that I want you to notice this evening is that part of God's plan for your life part of God's will for your life is that you become a partaker of his divine nature what does that mean you become like unto the Lord you become a good what Christian right and the way we obtain that is by fulfilling reaching unto the promises of God so God says do this we need the faith to do it to to reach the result of becoming more like Christ becoming more godly pleasing the Lord and in this particular chapter he gives a really systematic way of doing that I don't know about you but I like points one two three and four and five on how to be successful in the Christian life right like I like systematic doctrine I like sermons that are very systematic it's like point A or point one letter A under that point number two point number three here are your five steps here's the five things you got to do here's ten things you got to do and I like it especially when it comes to theology but it's even better when it comes to Christian living right like it's like how do I become a good Christian how do I make sure that I don't become just an unfruitful Christian well luckily we have a seven step program right here in second Peter chapter number one and that's what we're going to look at this evening now the first thing I want you to notice in verse number five it says beside this giving all diligence what does that mean well the next couple words the next couple of virtues that we're going to look at in steps are pretty much meaningless if you don't have diligence in other words this stuff does not come by osmosis right you're not going to get these things just by coming to our church or just by claiming that you're a Christian or even by just getting saved right you're not going to automatically obtain these promises just by doing so the Bible says that it requires diligence on our part what does that mean be consistent you don't get anything in a Christian life other than salvation without some diligence okay being consistent you don't reach any type of spiritual success without any type of diligence diligence in your Bible reading diligence in your church attendance diligence in godly living and prayer life and sowing and all these matters of the Christian faith it requires some form of consistency and you know what I've learned over the last 16 years of me being saved is that a lot of times people fail in the Christian life or they don't obtain the promises set before them only because they quit too early you know they quit before they can see the results the results are promised the results are there the program has been made for you god has these points laid out for you but what happens is people grow weary they grow tiresome they get involved in sin they end up kind of becoming discouraged and disillusioned you know what happens they lose diligence whereas what the Bible is teaching us is that you need to become consistent in the Christian life regardless of whatever circumstances surround you at that time be consistent have the character to do what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it whether you feel like it or not and obviously you know new Christians have a hard time with that sometimes new Christians are very much emotionally driven they go to church if they feel like it or they read their Bible if they really feel like it they live a godly life if it you know kind of fits them at that moment if they feel like doing those things those are characteristics of a newborn Christian but the longer you're a Christian the more you realize that hey I need diligence in my Christian life if I'm going to produce any type of godly results that essentially produces god's blessing in my life but on god's blessing I need to be consistent in these things in order for me to see success in the long term okay and I'll be honest with you you know like I mentioned I've been saved for about 16 years there's certain results that I didn't see for years on end there's certain results that I'm barely seeing now of things that I was consistent with 10 years ago put it that way there's things that I learned 10 years ago that someone told me be consistent in this area and I'm barely seeing results now 16 year 16 of being saved 10 years later of whenever I was given a certain promise I was taught a certain principle I'm barely seeing results now and I'm learning things now that guess what I'm not going to see the results in for another 20 years I'm not going to see the results in for another 30 years and you think to yourself well hold on a second you know I I was kind of hoping to see results next week I was kind of hoping to see results like at the end of this service I was I was like you know I thought we we taught immanency here when it came to god's blessing or something like that but you know obviously there's there's there's immediate blessings but then there's long term blessings that come as you become diligent in the Christian life and the reality is this is that certain blessings are only designated for people who can who are mature enough to receive it anyways you know so sometimes it's just like god wants to bless you with particular things in the Christian life but you're not really capable of even like dealing with that blessing you you wouldn't even know how to handle that blessing right so it's just like god has to build your character he has to build you as a Christian he has to build you as a person so that when he gives you that blessing 10 years down the road you're actually capable, fortified to actually handle it okay because the reality is this is sometimes Christians aren't mature enough to handle blessings and so we have to realize that diligence is the key to Christian growth and here's the next thing I want you to notice verse number 5 says beside all this giving all diligence I want you to notice this phrase here your faith virtue okay now what's so significant about adding to your faith well you know in order to add to your faith there has to be faith there so if you never add to your faith it just means that faith is alone it means it still exists so the point that I'm trying to get across here is that obviously when it comes to salvation all we need is our faith in Christ you don't need to do all these things that we're going to look at tonight to be or stay saved or progress in your salvation or something like that this has to do with people who are already saved people who need to add to your faith this could be very much likened unto James chapter 2 right add to your faith works making sure that you're living out your Christian faith and so we obviously have to be saved in order for these things to work right and it's important for us to realize that yes we're saved yes we know that salvation can never be lost yes it's by faith alone in Jesus Christ but you know thereafter it's time to put in some work it's time to start building upon our most holy faith build upon that foundation which is Jesus Christ in order to see some significant eternal results in the long term so tonight I want to look at these virtues here and see what these specifically mean how we can describe and define them as but before we get into that look at verse number 9 you say well you know what if I just don't want to do it well I don't feel like it okay then don't do it no skin on my back if you don't do it okay I'm going to do it because I want to see results in my personal life I want to do it because I want to see results in my family's life I want to do it because hey I'm already saved and you know there's so many ways to earn rewards there's so many blessings in the Christian life it's like it's kind of like why not do it I mean if I were to kind of compare what I would be doing instead of obeying God and keeping his commandments and doing these things you know the alternative sucks the alternative is living for the world the alternative is that which is carnal it doesn't produce anything but sin and the wages of sin and death and things that are just unfruitful okay but you say what if I just choose not to become fruitful in this area I know that I'm saved I know what the Bible says about these things but I don't really want to live out these things what happens well look at it says in verse number 9 it says he that lacketh these things referring to the virtues we're going to look at is blind and cannot see afar off and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins the Bible says so in other words if a person chooses not to add to their faith they just want to be the most basic of Christian of the fact that they know that they're saved they know they're on the way to heaven but they don't want to add to their faith okay then you could just be blind for the rest of your life then and what does that mean it means you can't really see afar off you don't have a vision for your life you can't really see past tomorrow you see when you grow in grace and in the knowledge it's basically you looking into the eternal it's you thinking about the millennial reign it's you thinking about the new heaven and new earth it's you thinking 10, 20, 30 40, 50 years down the road and what's going to take place in those moments you know the life that you're going to produce for your children the life you're going to have in your marriage the ministry you're going to be a part of whatever it is you're looking into the future but if you choose not to do those things then you're blind and you can't really see afar off you can't see past tomorrow and one of the greatest challenges for a pastor listen to me one of the greatest challenges that I've learned within these last couple of years of pastoring is this I have a hard time getting people seen past tomorrow it's hard because sometimes I try to cast vision to people and say hey you know don't make this decision it's going to affect you in the long run hey make this decision it'll be good for you in the long run but sometimes people can't see past lunch time I have a hard time getting people to see past this sermon some people can't even see because they're falling asleep they're just like you know drowsiness has clothed them you know they can't see past tomorrow but even from a spiritual perspective they have a hard time seeing the consequences of their actions and I can't make that happen for anybody you know what I mean I can preach hard I can pray I can beg I can beseech I can shake the pulpit I can do everything I possibly can humanly speaking but I can't get you to see past tomorrow you have to do that and it's heartbreaking for a pastor to have to cast vision and someone who's just barren and unproof they can't see a far off and they forgot that they were purged from their old sins you see when you see a far off when you know where you've been you know where you're going right and it's just like you know I've been saved for 16 years but you know what I think about the day that I got saved I was thinking about it all the way over here just thinking about it all the way over here just thinking about the fact you know I'm so thankful that I got saved I'm so thankful that the Lord saved me I'm so thankful that I came into an independent fundamental Baptist church and I learned about the right way of salvation and my sins are forgiven I'm on my way to heaven and it makes me think about the future it makes me think about the results it makes me think about the future to come and part of that is me making sure that I'm not being barren nor unfruitful in my knowledge and so and so he says there if you lack these things you're blind you can't see a far off you forgot that you were purged from your old sins this would be considered like a backsliding Christian and that's where it starts right with you becoming unfruitful barren not choosing to add to your faith and what happens is you know you become what is it near sighted is when something's far away right you can't see far away is that correct yeah you become near sighted because it's just like you can't really see it far off so you're only seeing the first couple steps you know there's times in the Christian life when that doesn't happen though right where you're going through such a difficult time that it's like you can only see the first couple steps in front of you but we can't live there you know after a while you better see a little further down the road okay we can't live just looking three four steps ahead we need to be able we're to be Christian visionaries here and the Bible says where there is no vision listen to this the people perish but he that keepeth the law happy as he okay now I preach sermons from that many times and I've heard many sermons on that and people often think to themselves like oh vision like just get a vision for your life or you know like vision for your job vision for your family vision for this vision for that but really the vision that it's referring to is the vision from God's word it's the law of God okay so when you have the law of God in front of you when you have God's word in front of you when you're walking with God on a daily basis you're not going to perish you're not going to be barren you're not going to be unfruitful you're not going to be blind you're not going to forget that you were purged from your old sins you're going to be successful in your Christian life okay and so let's look at a couple of these things that the apostle Peter talks about he says add to your faith virtue now this is pretty interesting because the first thing he brings up is virtue he's like alright first thing to do when you're a Christian is add virtue now what is virtue? virtue is moral excellence virtue is righteousness in its most simplest terms it's just righteous living now that's kind of interesting isn't it because you would think well shouldn't people know what the Bible says first shouldn't people know doctrine first shouldn't people know what the Bible says first and then act out some of those things or then clean up their lives no I'm not according to the Bible according to the Bible one of the most important things for you to do first is to add virtue to your faith in other words as soon as you get saved you start making some changes in your life you start immediately making changes in your life go to James chapter 4 hold your place there in 2 Peter go to James chapter 4 and you know what I love it I love it when people first get saved when they come to church they get saved and then they start changing the way they look start changing the way they dress they start changing their behavior like almost immediately not perfectly sometimes they come in with some funky clothing but they're doing their best they just dress a little different but they're trying their best to kind of like clean up their life they want to look different they want to act different that's actually an important aspect of the Christian life did you know that because it's essentially showing God I want something to change I want to add virtue I want to add righteousness I want to add moral excellence to my life and it's not just in regards to clothing obviously obviously it's just in regards to moral excellence as far as behavior is concerned you repent from certain sins if you're a person who is given over to alcohol and marijuana recreational drugs or whatever put those things away from you when you get right with God put out the weed and throw it in the trash and pour out the the bottles of liquor and beer or whatever drugs that you might be involved in throw them in the trash you know you got yourself a girlfriend or a boyfriend that's not a Christian and they're not saved and want nothing to do with the things of God kick them to the curb be like see ya wouldn't want to be with ya and you know that's one of the biggest deals sometimes for young people is to separate from certain relationships that you know in the long term are not good for you and the Bible specifically says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers what does that mean? when you're coupled with a person who is not a Christian who's not saved God says don't be together Christians are not supposed to be with non-Christians you say well what's the problem with that? if they love each other and they're in love and all these things well I'll tell you what's the problem with that those people get married you get a Christian and a non-Christian they get married there's all kinds of problems in marriage one of them being that person doesn't believe in your God and you know what? you're going to have problems with church attendance you're going to have problems with changing things in the home, you're going to have problems with child rearing, you're going to have problems with the direction of your home and standards there's all kinds of issues that arise when you get married to someone who's just not a Christian whatsoever and here's the thing well I'll just get them saved and amen and sometimes that works I've seen it work where you get them saved and then they start coming to church and then they start living for God and now Jesus Christ becomes their conviction and now they're coming to church because they want to grow and they love the Lord we've had stories like that in our church however sometimes it's just like you get them saved or they claim to get saved or something and then they're just like you know what? but I'm not into it like you are they're not into the whole church thing and God forbid if you bring them to a new IFB church these extreme these religious zealots or whatever and the things that they believe it creates all kinds of conflict but let's just talk about just unsaved though if they're unsaved you're going to have a lot of issues in marriage because of it you're going to have a lot of conflict because of the fact that you both have different gods that's just the bottom line and people in our church have also suffered through that as well and I'm sure many can give testimonies to that but here's the thing folks it's important that once you get saved you just start changing your life a little bit making changes, getting rid of slices in your life, maybe getting rid of some friends in your life, right? maybe you have some toxic friends some people who are not necessarily a good influence on you especially the ones that are still involved in the habits that you're trying to kick it's never good to keep friends around who still have and play with the same habits that you're trying to get rid of like well you know I have willpower you know what I mean? that's true we all have willpower but it's very small percentage though you know willpower in our lives is only supposed to be used incrementally it's like you know the fire extinguisher you know the ones with the glass and stuff is like only break it for emergencies you know what I mean? if there's other fires use something else but for really big emergencies then you hit that thing and you know that's how your willpower is that's only for emergencies when you have to get yourself out of a bad situation but you don't use the fire extinguisher every single week you're going to run out and you're going to try to win your friends over all your pot smoking buddies and alcohol become a fornicator you will eventually become a pot smoker you will eventually do the things that they do because willpower can only take you so far so it's important to have the right associations the right friends the right associations what am I talking about? talk about virtue and you know what? having virtue is also being around virtuous people not virtual people like I have some good virtuous people they're all on social media all my virtuous friends are on social media not virtual people not virtual friends you need some actual friends I know Facebook calls it friends ok but let's just be honest here they're not really friends ok they might be nice people and you know I have a lot of friends on Facebook but I'll be honest with you probably like 80% of them I have no idea who they are because they follow me and I just follow back I'm just like follow follow follow follow you say why? because I just want them to get my content you know what I mean I just put out content and hopefully it recommends it to them and you know you have that Facebook messenger right? well I never go on there because if I did I would have to answer 50 Africans who are like asking for like donations hello beloved brother holy kisses unto you it's just like dude you lost me at hello holy brother who talks like that but here's the thing we're friends on Facebook though but are we really friends? no we're not virtual friends don't count you need virtuous friends and the best place to find virtuous friends are here in church and here's the thing man the church is such a wonderful tool to use to establish good long term significant relationships it's a great place to do that it's a safe place to do that it's not the safest because we live in a corruptible world but you know you're likely to find some pretty good friends in church some friends that will surpass the relationship of being a friend and becoming almost like family right? that's what people need and so that's part of virtue you know putting away your bad friends getting some good friends maybe even staying away from certain toxic family members I mean that's a big thing right? and I can say even in my personal life I've had to get rid of both you know family and friends certain family members that as much as I love because they're my blood and I grew up with them and I love them you know they blaspheme the name of the Lord and you know what I want nothing to do with people like that my loyalty is to Jesus Christ my loyalty is to the Bible and you know if you want to disrespect my God and disrespect my Savior and my presence then you know we ain't hanging out I don't want nothing to do with you and if you want to bring these revilers and despisers of them that are good around when I'm around then I'm not going to be around because our loyalty is to Jesus Christ this is what's called virtue okay virtue is referring to the fact that you are seeking to have moral excellence in your life and obviously you can only go so far without knowledge though right but you know what let's just be honest all of us when we first got saved we knew there was something we had to get rid of right it's like there's this innate belief within us it's just like alright I got to get rid of this person alright I got to stop doing this it's like innately we just know and maybe you're not around bad people maybe you don't have bad friendships or whatever but maybe innately you know I need to get my butt in church or I need to start reading the Bible or I need to start you know doing X, Y, and Z whatever you know but there's something that everyone innately knows alright I need to add this to my life or subtract it from my life right and so that's what it means to add to your faith virtue it's like you're taking your first steps into living a righteous life and you think to yourself well I'm not a newborn I already did that pastor I'm morally excellent I'm already righteous you know the Bible says keep adding though because we never arrive this side of eternity and never get to a point where you think to yourself well I've been saved for so many years and I pretty much I have it down pat like you know I'm built like that you know what I mean I've already built myself like that you know reference today this morning's sermon for that you little narcissist okay the Bible says in James 4-7 submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded so notice cleansing your hands is first purifying your hearts is second you would think well you got to get your hearts right before the Lord well sometimes you got to clean your hands first and then the purifying of the hearts comes after cleaning your hands and doing the outward cleaning first will often clean that which is on the inside second okay and so add to your faith virtue the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 7 you don't have to turn there verse 11 go with me if you would to Colossians chapter number 2 Colossians chapter 2 and then we're going to go to Ephesians 4 2 Corinthians 7 11 says for behold the self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you ye what clearing of yourselves ye what indignation ye what fear what beheman desire ye what zeal ye what revenge and all these things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter and look people who first get saved or they start getting plugged into the Christian life you know they're not always going to struggle with the same things you might get involved in the Christian life and you're married already you have kids well the message to you is hey start loving your wife as Christ also loved the church start taking your wife on dates again like you used to you know start reverencing and respecting and obeying your husband and submitting to your husband these are things that would be considered virtuous things to do in the Christian life okay so I don't want to belabor that point so add to your faith virtue and then it goes on to say add to virtue knowledge okay now here's the thing folks is that people can often err or they can go to two extremes one extreme is just like it's all about virtue it's all about moral excellence it's all about living righteously and they don't really care what the Bible says but you know what the Bible tells us is that we need to care about what the Bible says like we need to add to our faith we need to add to virtue knowledge in other words as we're living righteously crack open the Bible and actually read it and learn it don't get caught up in this crowd that says oh read the Bible for inspiration not information wrong you read the Bible for both you get inspiration because it quickens you but you also get information because God wants you to learn the Bible okay don't think oh you know yeah but you know the book of Leviticus is just not that interesting it's pretty interesting actually especially you're living in 2023 you're gonna be like oh okay I know who that's talking about oh privy members cut off can't enter into the into the house of God if they have their privy members cut off oh that's like today no wonder pastor doesn't allow trannies into the church oh and you start seeing all these things it's just like now you're learning God's word you see Christians if they're not careful they're like whoa that's you're just going down deep you're just learning all this information and that's not useful wrong wrong because folks the Bible doesn't say learn this because it's useful sometimes God just wants you to learn the Bible why because he wrote it that's why God wrote the Bible and it's kind of disrespectful to say well there's certain parts of the Bible that just are not really that important wrong the entire Bible's important and it's just like well yeah but you know we should really focus on the gospel we should really focus on the family we should really focus on these particular areas wrong we gotta focus on everything because if God only wanted us to focus on those things only those things would be talked about in the Bible and I know there's parts of the Bible that maybe are not very interesting but you know what sorry you and I did not write the Bible and God put it there for a reason therefore he wants us to learn it no I'm not saying you gotta learn it by next week you have a lifetime to learn it but the Bible says add to virtue knowledge so we never want to be just these Christians who are just like well you know brother we just don't want to be pharisaical you know these progressive Christians out there where you read one Bible verse and they're just like well kind of extreme you know you start quoting the Bible it's like whoa buddy easy there little Pharisee you know when really they're the Pharisees because the Pharisees didn't like the Bible they didn't obey the Bible they didn't even know what the word of God really said and so we need knowledge in our life look at Colossians 2 verse 1 it says for I would that ye knew what great conflict I had for you and for them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face my face in the flesh that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and into all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ and whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge now let me explain something okay because if Christians aren't careful they accredit their relationship with God to emotion to like this anecdotal experience that they have right where it's just like I feel the presence of God I know Jesus is real because I feel his presence or something you know whereas God doesn't want us to base what we believe off of our emotions and feelings because our emotions and feelings are like this especially if you're a girl if you're a woman you know it's just like it's like a six flags roller coaster okay men you know we can but we pretty much stay like right here you know what I mean it's just like a really boring roller coaster right a woman is just like it's like Goliath it's like Superman so you can go all over the place I don't care if you give me those looks either it's true I'm not backing down on that okay I say it without apology so what's important folks is that we learn the Bible so we know who Jesus really is according to the Bible we don't learn who Jesus is based upon our anecdotal experiences we learn about Jesus Christ based upon what God says he is you understand because when you start basing who Jesus Christ is off of your experience off of your emotions off of your dreams or something you know you're going to come up with a lot of heresy and you're making yourself the final authority to interpret who Jesus Christ really is so God wants us to add to our virtue knowledge because of the fact that he wants us to have some substance to our Christian life he wants us to base what we believe about Jesus Christ about God based upon the Bible and I'm not saying you can't be emotional because God wants us to be emotional regarding him right the Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength it should be some emotion when you love the Lord but it should never supersede the knowledge of the word of God okay it should never surpass the boundaries of God's word which is why the Bible says to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ we all have thoughts and ideas that are contrary to God's word which is important that we have to fill our minds with the Bible with the knowledge of the Bible to kind of center us give us a little buoyancy right to say you know what this isn't a proper thought this is what the Bible says and I'm gonna go with the word of God on this but it only happens if you have knowledge don't be don't be spiritually stupid don't be a simpleton spiritually speaking God wants us to have the knowledge of him know who he is because if not then you're gonna start thinking like Jesus had long hair and then he wore a dress and he was white and all this stuff and you know or how about today it's just like no Jesus is black or something this is like a huge thing right now where people are like David's black King David is black even though the Bible says he was ruddy and someone made a post and they put Bathsheba and David that they're black and I put this is inaccurate and it's stupid he was not black I was like the Bible says he was ruddy which means like red right like a reddish color and they're like he wasn't white who said anything about white I said ruddy and they're like man you're so dumb he was never white I'm just like I never said white I said he was ruddy and if you want me to get specific he's like middle eastern color you know but this is the whole woke movement and trying to black wash everything or even Cleopatra is black now apparently you know what I'm talking about you know Cleopatra was Greek do you guys know history Cleopatra was not a black woman she was Greek oh you're being racist why cause they say the word black cause they say someone's not black folks I mean the black people in our church agree with me I mean they better agree with me if they don't then they're wrong they're just like no I thought you know but you know these people are just like Aaron and his sister who were mad at Moses for marrying an Ethiopian woman and you know what she was black and so what happens when you don't actually know what the bible says you come up with all kinds of weird stupid ideas so we need to make sure that after we have moral excellence after we clean up our lives you know you go to your bible and you're like alright now I gotta start reading this thing oh man I didn't know that make sure you get your doctrine from the bible and not from the chosen okay you know make sure you're getting your knowledge from the word of God and not from some stupid Mormon series known as the chosen that tries to fill in the blanks for you with heresy obviously and look you're like you're exaggerating I know people personally that watch the chosen or gain their doctrine from the chosen it's embarrassing my friends okay it's stupid it's nonsensical but it exists today and in fact there was a pastor who would get on his wife because his wife would espouse doctrines while she was online that were from Christian novels and he would tell her like hey you know you can't read those anymore because it's affecting your doctrine you're starting to say stuff that's not doctrinal okay and so you need to stick to the bible and they'd be like well you know the bible doesn't really say this but you know it would make sense if that's what happened or whatever it's like it's from these Christian novelists who are not even saved it's basically the chosen in book form or something and here's what they excuse they say well we're just really trying to fill in the blanks of some of the things that took place Judas didn't have a sister okay you're going a little overboard on that one Judas did not start off in a ministry with good intentions you're going a little too far on that one okay you know I don't know what multiverse you're in it's like it's like this is Judas from the multiverse you know Judas no way home or something you know what I mean he treats himself from like a different world or something like that where he actually had good intentions that's basically what it is and if you're getting mad at this it's only because you watch the chosen and you don't read the bible okay Gio Gio are you watching the chosen? you got to be ashamed of yourself what a weenie no I'm just kidding knowledge my friends and look when you have biblical knowledge there's a lot of things that frustrate you on this world the things that so called Christians put forth you're like inaccurate not right why are you saying this this is blasphemous this is wicked but this is what happens and look good well meaning people do that though they're saved and you know what I've known people that have moral excellence that are righteous people but their knowledge is like down the drain and they're allowing the things they're allowing the world to narrate the bible for them it's not right my friends we need to add to our virtue knowledge now we don't need to be perfect in knowledge we have a lifetime to learn the bible but we need to make sure we esteem the knowledge of god and not undermine it and think well you know those are for like the theologians or something or that's for the people who they just they only love doctrine or something as if doctrine is like a bad thing and so what do I have in return look at Ephesians 4 verse 11 it says and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so according to the bible you cannot truly be complete in Christ perfect as the bible says it you cannot have the knowledge of Jesus Christ and you cannot have the knowledge of Jesus Christ without the bible you know search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they are which testify of me that's what Jesus Christ said so don't separate that in order for you to have perfection to have maturity you need the knowledge of the son of god which in turn comes from the word of god itself the bible says you don't have to turn there in Romans 10 verse 2 for I bear them record that they have a zeal of god but not according to knowledge and we definitely don't want to be Christians who are zealous for the things of god but it's not based upon biblical doctrine, biblical principles we need to know what the bible says about certain things verse 14 says that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive and look if you're tired of me talking about the chosen I'm going to talk about it again when season 4 comes out because they got to I mean they're going to go through the whole gospel so I'm going to tear that thing apart because they're teaching false doctrine on that it's made by Catholics, funded by Mormons and listened to by really dumb Christians pretty sad alright go back to 2 Peter chapter 1 let me read to you from 2 Corinthians 11 back on that point about knowledge it says here if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached or if ye receive another spirit which ye have not received or another gospel which ye have not accepted ye might well bear with him so he's like you lack so much knowledge that if someone came with a different Jesus Christ a different gospel, a different spirit you might be like ok cool it's a cool show alright let's move on here so he says add to your faith virtue moral excellence, right to virtue knowledge and then he says to knowledge temperance now what is temperance? well I would define temperance as this the ability to rule over your own spirit I think that's a pretty good definition it's the ability to rule over your own spirit go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and then we're going to go to the book of Proverbs chapter 16 the ability to rule over your own spirit so God says get some more excellence about yourself once you get that more excellence start working on gaining knowledge how do you gain knowledge? by reading the Bible after you gain that knowledge and you're learning the Bible you're reading the Bible now learn how to rule over your own spirit don't allow your body to rule over you don't allow your emotions to rule over you you need to be the the Capitan of your of your body to tell your body what to do don't allow yourself to flare up control your emotions make sure that you are a tempered person is what the Bible is saying now let's read a couple verses here look at 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24 it says, knowing not that they which run and erase run all but one receiveth the prize so run that ye may obtain and every man that striveth for the mastery in all things now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one of the beat of the air but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a cast the way the Bible says so you kind of see how important this matter of temperance is ruling over your own spirit in order for us to gain the eternal prize we have to make ourselves do certain things we have to make sure that we are disciplined in the Christian life but also that we are able to rule over our own spirit now what do I mean by ruling over your own spirit go to Proverbs chapter 16 it means you essentially determine whether you are walking in the spirit or you are walking in the flesh you see you can't use this excuse of like, oh man sin made me do it or something my sinful flesh you live in your sinful flesh though you can't I mean I know Paul said for me that is in my flesh there is no good thing but he is still taking full responsibility for his sin you understand what I am saying you know it's not like sin in us just possesses us and we are just like, oh no you know and then you know, hey look let me just say this I am going to confess my sins before you right now and I have already confessed it to many of you already and the reason I am confessing it now is because I am realizing that all of us are involved in sin together, we are in this together I have been eating McDonalds judge not, be not judged for what judgment you judge you shall be judged what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again I used to hate McDonalds and then reason look, I know I just said you can't blame I am going to blame my wife though because she just had the baby and when women have babies like their hormones are and somehow that affects me, the pheromones come into my nose you will get it later on, you understand what I am talking about and one day I was just like man a double cheeseburger sounds really good and I was like you know what I am going to eat a double cheeseburger and I know it's not going to taste good and I am just going to put it away from me so I did not have temperance and I went and got it and the freaking thing tasted really good I was like dang it but then I thought to myself well I ate it and then tomorrow I lift and I know it's going to affect me negatively in my lift so that's going to motivate me to like not eat it thereafter but unfortunately it helped my lift I felt great I was like man what's going on so I started experimenting so then I ate it again I was like well it's not going to help my bench for sure but then man I was like I mean it's been going really well so then I am just like well I am going to keep this to myself I will probably tell a couple of people I told Marcos, I told Ulysses because they are wicked sinners too they eat McDonalds as well but then I started finding out there are a lot of people in our church that eat McDonalds like a lot like a lot and then I started opening up because we had a little intervention and then people were like oh yeah this is really good and this is really good so then it made it really hard to like not eat it because then everyone else is sinning you know what I mean so I followed a multitude to do evil but you know what I can't blame anybody but myself and so the reason I even brought that up the reason I brought that up because I am trying to illustrate something here and by the way McDonalds after church I am just kidding the reason I brought that up, don't tell Pastor Anderson although he is probably not going to watch this, don't tell because then he is going to be like you know he is not going to let me hear the end of it after but the reason I bring that up is because they didn't possess me my wife's hormones didn't possess me I am just like oh no what am I doing I just like started going to town I did it to myself you know sin that dwells in me took control of my members but I allowed myself to do it what I am saying here is that obviously in the Christian life look let's just talk about how about when emotions flare how about let's talk about anger how about anger and you know depression or anxiety or things that are just how about fear these are things that can kind of come out during certain circumstances in your life and you know some people are controlled by those things some people if they get angry they can't help but just like blow up on someone that's someone who has no control rule over their own spirit yeah but he made me mad I mean a lot of people make me mad I don't go around knocking everyone out that makes me mad you know it's called ruling over your own spirit just because you're upset just because you're anxious just because you feel a sense of fear doesn't mean that you need to be controlled by those things you need to learn some temperance about yourself okay to be temperate and you know for the men let's just talk to the men for a little bit that's important when it comes to anger because men have a tendency to kind of just blow up when they're angry I know women do too sometimes but men probably more so than women where you know they just kind of snap they snap at their wives they snap at their children they snap at a brother and sister in Christ they just can't contain their emotions that is immaturity my friends we need to learn some temperance okay but let's just put anger aside how about just blurting out just stupid things out of your mouth you need some temperance amen you know just blurting out the most nonsensical thing and saying the most dumbest thing just offending people left and right you know you need some temperance about yourself you need to control your mouth okay it's important for you to practice temperance to add to your to knowledge temperance so that you're not going around discrediting yourself as a Christian because of the words that come out of your mouth you understand like yeah but people need my knowledge though you know because I added to my faith virtue to my virtue knowledge so now I want to tell everyone the knowledge that I have doesn't work that way my friends okay we need to make sure look at Proverbs 16 that we control ourselves back to the subject of anger it says in verse 32 he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty now it doesn't say he that is never angry right it doesn't say he that is never angry because anger is a good thing sometimes and I would have a problem with a man who never gets angry over anything because when sin arises iniquity abounds and they're not angry about those things something's wrong with that dude he needs some testosterone you know his estrogen levels are a little too high then if he's not getting angry about the abominations of this world you know there's a problem if men aren't getting angry throughout the month of June there's a problem when Christians aren't getting angry over those things and actually speaking out against it God wants us to be angry about those things now the Bible says be angry and sin not though so that anger is not like well I'm going to actually go be violent or something no that's wrong that's ungodly that's not what the Lord wants for us it's just like well you know and by the way stop coming up with these stupid hypothetical scenarios where it's just like what if this sodomite comes and does this to me do I have every right to just chop off their heads or something it's not going to happen so stop bringing up that stupid scenario stop trying to fantasize about violence because that's exactly what it is you know people always come up with these really dumb scenarios that will never happen and it's almost as if like you believe in the power of positive negative thinking or it's just like I just hope it comes to pass you just want it to be a self-fulfilling prophecy or something like that okay we should not love violence my friends and don't get your hatred for the reprobates mixed up with your responsibility to like carry out violence against anybody and by the way none of our church members have ever been guilty of that I'm just saying because I know there's a tendency and people who are a little overly due to their faith virtue but they forgot the knowledge part and the temperance part to start thinking whoa what if this happens do I have every right to just merc them all or something like that it's just like no you don't that's wicked that's a wicked thing to do that's a wicked thing to think the thought of foolishness is sin okay and don't smile about that it's not funny it's not funny to take someone else's life especially as a Christian that's forbidden for us as Christians to do my friends so wipe that stupid look off your face and recognize folks we're not to be violent and you know what we never want to be characterized as a church that you know oh man I hope they come here and I hope because I'm going to do this and that wrong attitude to have learn some temperance temperance is important my friends look it says here slow to anger so what does slow to anger mean it means it takes a lot for you to get really upset okay doesn't mean you never get upset it just means it takes a lot for you to actually reach that point and God says if you're slow to anger you're better than some of the mightiest people in this world he says and he that ruleth the spirit than he that taketh a city if you're able to rule your own spirit and have temperance in your life you're better than an entire army who can invade a city according to God's word I mean that's pretty amazing right and so temperance is so important the Bible says he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls so why does the Bible describe it like that he says he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls what does that mean well you think of a city that has walls it has walls to protect them right but if those walls are broken down who can enter in just anything any enemy so if a person has no rule over their own spirit they have a breach in their spirit that means they can get all kinds of satanic attacks on their life you see why it's important to have temperance in your life to have self control to have temperance to keep your anger at bay to not just react by the way respond don't react okay someone disrespects you or someone slaps you across the face someone does something to you the immediate reaction should not be clap clap clap clap clap you know just stab and clap or whatever you know the reaction should be I don't want violence and I'm not saying to be a pacifist because look folks and look let me clarify something okay I'm not saying if someone attacks your family you don't do anything about it if someone obviously attacks my wife or my kids it's on it's on okay oh what about the temperance part well the temperance part tells me to do something about it you say why is that because God holds me responsible for my family so I'm gonna protect my wife I'm gonna protect my children but when it comes to the violence for me on the other hand the Bible says that I should yield which also requires temperance requires for me to have self control to not give into that and to be slow to anger and again I'll be honest with you these are things that I've had to learn a lot because there's been times in my personal life where I've allowed my temper to flare upon an individual and it's just human nature but this is why we have to add these things to our particular faith okay are we still good or what no one's offended right I guess they are alright go to Hebrews if you would Hebrew chapter 10 so what are we talking about here we're talking about adding to our faith virtue knowledge, knowledge temperance and then he says to temperance patience and I'm not gonna belabor this point because I've talked about this a couple weeks ago you know it's important for us to have patience which means endurance it's important to have endurance in the Christian life so what good is it if you have virtue and you have knowledge and you have temperance but you just fizzle out you just quit you just don't hack it right what good is it to just clean up your life and have all this knowledge for like three months and then you're out of here right what good is it to have all this knowledge and all this temperance but then you're out of church in six months you know you gotta learn you gotta learn some endurance you gotta learn some patience I was talking to brother Matt Lieb earlier and Matt Lieb he's a personal trainer he trains a lot of people and he was saying it's hard for me to get people to really understand that they're gonna see results in the long term and he's like people just want immediate results he was kinda he's basically saying that you know a lot of people struggle you know they want to do the you know you know the struggle with that one thing that you know I'm not saying that Gio struggles with it but I'm just saying he knows what I'm talking about I'm joking he doesn't mess with that I'm just saying you know that people have that temptation to want to go that route because they want immediate results whereas the results that they really want if they want it naturally takes years and years to reach that type of physique okay it takes a lot of discipline a lot of training a lot of consistency good dieting training it just takes a lot of character to get to that point and you know it sounds like what he's basically saying is like people just lack endurance because they just give up too easily you understand and so it's but it's the same thing in the Christian life right because there's certain things that the Christian life promises and there's certain things that we want to see but we need patience we need endurance hey young man you want to get married have some patience have some endurance young lady you want to get married you want to find that knight in shining armor well he's not here so you know I'm just kidding your expectations are way too high no I'm just kidding I'm just kidding you know it takes some patience it takes some endurance it takes a lot of endurance it takes a lot of patience you know you want to raise godly children it takes endurance it takes patience hey if you want to have a godly marriage a successful marriage it takes endurance it takes patience it takes hardships so a lot of the things in the Christian life we don't we can't it's not a microwave system it's not a drive through system you can't just phone it in it's not what's that called mobile order you know you can't mobile order a Christian life it comes when it comes typically it's long term so it's important that you learn this virtue right here you're like I got I got virtue I'm cleaning up my life I'm learning the Bible I'm learning some temperance what's next well now you got to learn some endurance and the way you learn endurance is by going through difficult times the way your marriage learns endurance is by going through a really difficult time in marriage the way you learn endurance individually is by just experiencing very hard difficult tumultuous times in your life you say well how does that help me you just don't quit on the Lord and on church excuse me on the things of God while you're going through it you understand you have to learn endurance you have to learn patience if you're going to succeed I had to turn to Hebrews but let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 4 at least you know where Hebrews is at amen hey at least I know you can find Hebrews some of you are like man I'm glad because I couldn't find it alright and then he says add to patience godliness ok now how would we define godliness you know aren't we talking about godliness isn't this all essentially encapsulating what godliness is well godliness can be defined as the pursuit of simply godly living right or to live a life characterized by biblical standards a life that is built on the word of God it's a life that is built on the Bible and godliness in its final form can be really explained as being a life that is centered around Jesus Christ and the Bible and you think to yourself well yeah that sounds about right you know what I mean but I don't think people understand how important this is because what that means is like when you go home you're a Christian still you know when you're at home with your wife and kids the Bible is still the center of your attention when you're at work guess what you're still a Christian when you're by yourself you're still living a godly life like oh whoa whoa whoa hey you know I'm willing to do all that while I'm here you know what I mean wear the suits and sing the praises and amen and all that what I do out there is what I do out there okay then you just don't have godliness because godliness is essentially when you live out the Christian life in all different aspects of your life not just here at church it's basically you don't compartmentalize the Lord you're being a good Christian with your parents you know you go back to your unsafe parents it could be a challenge to live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord when your parents don't have those standards they don't believe those things and maybe they're a little loose with you maybe they kind of let you do whatever it is that you want you know you need some godliness in your life like Joseph who was willing to serve the Lord even when he was in a foreign land away from his parents that's what godliness is it's essentially having a proper fear of God and living out the principles of the word of God no matter what circumstance you're in or what geographical location you find yourself in as well and so it's important for us to learn godliness because of the fact that it really makes Christianity realistic to us we realize you know what I'm not just a Christian when I'm here at church I need to be a good Christian when I'm at home too I need to make sure that I'm a good Christian to my wife, to my husband to my children I need to be a good Christian at work I need to be a good testimony and when I'm out in public no matter where I'm at I'm a Christian no matter what godliness is basically inserting biblical principles in all areas of your life not compartmentalizing the Lord to only one specific aspect does everyone understand that? 1 Timothy 4 verse 7 says but refuse profane and old wise fables and exercise thyself rather unto godliness for bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life which now is and of that which is to come this is a faithful saying and worthy of all go to 2 Timothy chapter 2 2 Timothy chapter 2 if you would we're almost done 2 Timothy chapter 2 says in verse 22 flee also youthful lusts but follow righteousness, faith charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart that's a good definition of godliness is that what you pursue? it's following after righteousness and the things of righteousness, the things of the kingdom of God it's when you essentially focus on that which is Christ like and eternal in all aspects and you're like man that's kind of hard well not really because as the Bible puts it the Bible has everything that pertains to life and godliness so you essentially Christianize whatever facet of your life there is you know like when you're at work you don't have to sing praises unto the Lord when you're at work, just do what the Bible says you have to do as a Christian worker you understand? be honest, be on time, be a hard worker be loyal to your boss exercise Christian principles and that's fear of your life when you're around your family guess what? It doesn't mean you're preaching you're not preaching to your mom you're not preaching to your dad what are you supposed to do? you live out your god given role in your home to your parents that's called godliness and I can give a bunch of other examples but you guys kind of get the point right? last one here godliness, brotherly kindness so after you've added all these things he says now add some brotherly kindness to your life now what does that mean? you need to start cultivating a love for the brethren and what this is basically implying here is that you got to kind of change your appetite in your associations right? because you know when you first get saved or I mean maybe you've already been saved for quite some time but you haven't lived out these things maybe you have an appetite for a certain group of people a certain group of people you're around and god says no you need to have some brotherly kindness you need to be around the brethren and have Christian friends and associations because obviously those are just good influences on your life okay? it says in 1 Thessalonians 4 9 but it's touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you for you yourselves are taught of god to love one another and then lastly here he says to brotherly kindness charity and why is charity the last thing that he says you need to add to your faith? well because charity, what's another word for charity? love and the Bible says in Colossians 3 10 that love is the what? the bond of perfectness so when you learn charity and that unconditional love all of it just kind of comes together because when you love the Lord and you love others you fulfill all the law and the prophets basically and so this obviously needs to be the driving force of everything that we do right? you develop a love for the Lord it's kind of weird you know why would love be last? I thought that's the first thing you have to learn well some people need these previous steps in order to get them to that point though and let me say this this isn't a 7 step program where it's like alright virtue got it I'm already righteous knowledge in the bag temperance, check these are things you have to continuously learn and look even me going through some of these I need to work on this specific one here like I'm just like what do you mean yeah what's that supposed to mean? alright brotherly kindness I'll be kind I'll exercise some temperance right now I'm just kidding as I'm going through this I'm just like you know what I need to kind of revive this particular aspect of my Christian life because I feel like I maybe failed in this area I need to work on this a little more and so it's just a balancing act to a certain extent where as you go through this list you make sure you're kind of fulfilling them and look as long as you're focusing on these things the Bible says you'll never be unfruitful or barren in your knowledge of Jesus Christ don't be a sterile Christian when it comes to knowledge don't be an unfruitful, barren Christian spiritually speaking by making sure that you implement all these things knowledge is good but you got to make sure you have all the six other virtues as well Amen? Alright let's pray Father we thank you so much for your word and thank you so much for being gracious to us and merciful when we fall short Lord and help us not to be barren nor unfruitful Lord we don't want to be blind and not be able to see a far off Lord I pray that you'd help us to get back on track when we fall off Lord and become carnal and fleshly minded I pray that you'd help us to get back on track and sometimes we need sermons like this even as I preach it I know that I need a sermon like this to remind me of the areas that I need to work on and thank you so much for the fact that the mercies of God are new every day that you show us kindness and grace Lord and I pray the Lord that you bless us as we go on our way bless the week to follow in Jesus name Amen Turn with me to Psalm number 227 saved by the blood saved by the blood Psalm number 227 Psalm number 227 saved by the blood on the first saved by the blood of the crucified one now ransomed from sin and a new word begun sing praise to the father and praise to the son saved by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm saved glory I'm saved my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone glory I'm saved glory I'm saved glory I'm saved saved by the blood of the crucified one saved by the blood of the crucified one the angels rejoicing because it is done a child of the father joining with the son saved by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm saved glory I'm saved my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone glory I'm saved glory I'm saved I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one on the third saved by the blood of the crucified one the father he spake and his will it was done great prize to my part in his own precious son saved by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm saved glory I'm saved my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone glory I'm saved glory I'm saved I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one the last saved by the blood of the crucified one all hail to the father all hail to the son all hail to the spirit the great one saved by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm saved glory I'm saved my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone glory I'm saved glory I'm saved I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one